New ECJ judgment: denied the registrability as a trademark of Lindt bunny

By a new judgement of 24 May 2012, in Case C-98/11 between Lindt and the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), the European Union Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on the registrability as a trademark of chocolate bunny Lindt. In particular, the question put forward to the ECJ was whether, given the opportunity to register as a trademark three-dimensional shape of a product, the shape of the rabbit mentioned above possess the necessary distinctiveness to be registered as a trademark. The Court ruled in the negative sense, thus confirming what had already been decided by the Court of First Instance of the European Union (and also by OHIM). The ECJ has indeed reaffirmed the absence of distinctive character in view of the goods for which registration was sought and the perception of form in question from the public. In the Court’s opinion, Lindt has also failed to demonstrate that the brand Lindt bunny possess intrinsic distinctive character through use which had been done.


06/29/2012 | Trade Mark